R A 



MENTAL ANTIDOTES FOR 
MANY ILLS 



GEORGE R.WOOD 



LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 




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CQEXRIGHT DEPOSm 



Mental Antidotes 
for Many Ills 



BY 



GEORGE R. WOOD 
II 




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BOSTON: THE GORHAM PRESS 

TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED 



Copyright, 1916, by George R.Wood 



All Rights Reserved 







JAN -S |917 



Printed in the United States of America 



The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 



^QA453538 



A FOREWORD 

In presenting "Mental Antidotes for Many 
Ills" we have endeavored to apply in a real 
and practical manner the truths and principles 
of modern psychology and theology to indi- 
vidual life in its every day environments. 

The only valid authority in the universe is 
truth. Truth may be defined as that which is 
in harmony with the will and character of God. 
Falsehood or error is that which falls without 
the circle of the character, will and plan of 
God. Truth, thus defined, is valid and authori- 
tative in its application to daily life, whether 
that truth be revealed through the Scriptures, 
through history or through the experiences and 
the laws of life. 

Hence, it is the purpose of this volume to 
suggest some of the practical applications of 
truth in its relation to the power of the human 
mind to bring into each life happiness, hope, 
poise, health, success and self-mastery. And, 

3 



4 Foreword 

since these pages are not written from the view- 
point of any sect, cult, denomination or school 
of thought, we trust that our readers may be 
able to examine the principles set forth with- 
out bias or prejudice. 

That each reader may come to enjoy to the 
full all the blessings that Right Mental Atti- 
tude can bring to him through the proper con- 
trol and direction of the appetites, desires and 
forces of the body, is the sincere wish of the 
author. 

George R. Wood. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Some Recognized Principles ... 9 
Cause and Effect — Knowing How 

II. A Fundamental Truth 15 

III. Mental Attitude or Mind Control 18 
The Brain Is Not the Mind— The 
Human Will Is Supreme — Thought 
Affects the Life— The Mind Can Be 
Rightly Directed 

IV. The Cause and Cure of Unhappi- 

ness 25 

V. The Remedy for Social Discord . . 39 

VI. The Mental Antidote for Forebod- 
ing 44 

VII. Poise for the Unbalanced Mind . 51 

VIII. The Mental Antidote for Failure 59 
Right Mental Attitude — Some Recog- 
nized Facts — Right Mental Emphasis 
— Confidence Can Be Cultivated 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IX. Mental Attitude and Health . . 70 
Some Recognized Facts — All Healing 
Is Divine Healing — God Made the 
Human Body to Be Well — God has 
Provided for Recovery from Sickness 
— God is Greater Than Sickness 

X. Mind and Mastery 90 

How Shall Man Obtain Dominion? — 
The Supreme Incentive for Mastery 



MENTAL ANTIDOTES FOR MANY 
ILLS 



MENTAL ANTIDOTES FOR 
MANY ILLS 

I 
SOME RECOGNIZED PRINCIPLES 

For every poison there is a counteracting 
potion. For every acid there is a neutralizing 
alkali. In the material and physical world, ac- 
tion and re-action are equal. The sum total 
of nature's forces, as a whole, are in exact 
balance. Without such a balancing of nature's 
forces, through the rapid re-adjustment of local 
disturbances and abnormal conditions of heat, 
cold and moisture, the earth would not be habit- 
able. 

Science and philosophy have already discov- 
ered and made plain the agents and forces 
which act and re-act in maintaining balance in 
the material realm. But, for the more dis- 

9 



io Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

tressing disturbances and weightier woes, inci- 
dent to the unbalanced conditions of the human 
mind, science has been slower to seek and philos- 
ophy tardier to apply such mental re-agents or 
antidotes as might restore balance, poise and 
peace. 

Reasoning from the analogies found in na- 
ture's laws both material and physical, we have 
grounds for belief that such re-agents or anti- 
dotes exist. In fact, they do exist, and for every 
discord, physical, mental and spiritual, there 
is an antidote. 

CAUSE AND EFFECT 

We know that every effect must have an ade- 
quate cause, whether that effect be material, 
physical or mental. Hence, every effect for 
good or ill produced in the human life through 
the mind has its adequate cause. If there is a 
cause which, acting through the mind, can in- 
jure the health, destroy the peace, and wreck 
the happiness and success of that life, there 
must also be a cause, which, acting through the 
mind, can restore the forces of that life to their 
normal balance of health, happiness and peace. 



Some Recognized Principles n 

Hence, we are logically led to hope and be- 
lieve that for every disturbing and distressing 
ill of life there is an antidote. And, even 
though the specific antidote for each particular 
discord of life may not as yet have been dis- 
covered, such failure does not prove that some 
re-agent does not exist, and should but speed 
the search for the discovery of the true anti- 
dote. 

KNOWING HOW 

To prevent or remove the effect, we must 
know the cause, and recognize the proper re- 
agent. The acid is burning to the bone. Will 
nothing stop it, will nothing relieve the pain? 
The "Intelligent Mari } applies the alkali and 
the pain is eased, the burning ceases. The 
"Ignorant Man" unacquainted with the proper 
antidote, must continue to suffer, perhaps even 
unto death. 

A fierce fire is raging, soon the entire build- 
ing will be consumed. The experienced fireman 
turns on the water, the fire ceases to burn, and 
the building is saved. 

// we but knew how, we could successfully 
meet and master all the ills of life. Jesus Christ 



12 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

knew how, hence, He could detect and correct 
every human discord. He could counteract all 
unbalanced conditions of the human body, mind 
and soul. He could meet every irritating condi- 
tion of life with a mollifying remedy. For 
every poison that could taint and infect the 
human life, He knew and could apply the spe- 
cific antidote. 

But many believe and declare that Christ's 
power was miraculous. We have no doubt but 
that it was miraculous, as men have usually de- 
fined a miracle. But we are often reminded 
that the miracles of one century have frequently 
become the commonplace of the next. A cen- 
tury ago it certainly would have been considered 
a miracle for a man to have made a trip through 
the air from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. 
To-day such a feat, remarkable as it may have 
been, is no more of a miracle than the flying 
of a bird. Neither Wright nor Rogers have 
abrogated the law of gravity; they simply neu- 
tralized it by the introduction of other agents 
and forces. 

Thus Jesus Christ, in mastering the discords 
of human life, never destroyed a single law of 
nature nor created a new one. He employed 



Some Recognized Principles 13 

only such forces as had been in existence from 
Creation. Christ fully understood the higher 
and divine laws of action and re-action in the 
human body, mind and soul. He overcame the 
discords of life by introducing harmony. He 
supplanted doubt by implanting faith. He ban- 
ished despair by introducing hope. He con- 
quered hate by enkindling love ; cured sickness 
by installing health; and destroyed evil by as- 
piration for the good. 

Hence even Jesus Christ's miracles of power 
were performed, not by the abrogation of law, 
but by the utilization of higher laws or forces. 
He overcame, not by destruction, but by substi- 
tution. Jesus knew how to apply the higher 
laws of life to the body, mind and soul for 
health, happiness, and spiritual power. He 
knew that the laws of life are the laws of 
God, and He recognized that the forces of life 
that make for health, happiness and goodness 
were more potent than were the forces of evil 
to produce sin, sickness and misery. 

The physical, mental and spiritual ills of life 
may still be mastered by the same attitude of 
mind that Christ had when here on earth, name- 
ly, by a recognition that God is greater than 



14 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

sin, sickness, suffering, and even death itself. 
The above truth can become a living reality 
only when each individual shall appropriate for 
himself, through faith in Jesus Christ, the fact 
that God is greater than his sin, his sickness, 
his sorrows, his troubles, any of his troubles, 
all of his troubles. 

u God is able to do exceeding, abundantly 
above all we ask or think, according to the 
power that worketh in us." Christ declared 
that, " According to your faith, be it unto you." 
In other words, every one may have all of the 
blessings of God and Christ that he has the 
faith to take. Now faith is simply a Mental 
Attitude of confidence toward man, toward 
Christ, toward God. Hence, the modern para- 
phrase of the above Scripture passage by the 
Christian psychologist would be, "According to 
your mental attitude be it unto you." Thus, 
the ills of life that are caused by wrong mental 
attitude, which is doubt, may be overcome by 
right mental attitude, which is faith. Hence, 
it is our purpose to show, in the following pages, 
that there are mental Antidotes for many of 
life's ills. 



II 

A FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH 

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
This is the statement of a fundamental truth, 
the declaration of a principle, on which char- 
acter is built, and by which happiness or misery, 
success or failure is determined. 

Our thoughts make us. We are to-day in 
character the sum total of all our past think- 
ing. Our future thinking, plus what we now 
are, will make us what we are finally to become. 
Since character is defined to be what a man is, 
that is, the sum total of his personality, and 
since man's thinking makes him what he is, it 
logically follows that man's thinking makes his 
character. 

Let us fix our minds upon this fundamental 
truth — Our thoughts make us what we are. 
Then, our thoughts make us good, and our 
thoughts make us bad. Our thoughts make 

15 



1 6 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

us happy; and our thoughts make us unhappy. 
Our thoughts make us successful; and our 
thoughts make us unsuccessful. Our thoughts 
inspire us to love; and our thoughts stir us to 
hate. Our thoughts inspire us to hope; and 
our thoughts fill us with despair. These are 
fundamental facts, they are axiomatic truths 
which we can all verify in our own lives and 
experiences. 

If our thoughts have made us bad, then be 
sure that our thinking can make us good. If 
our thoughts have made us sad, unhappy, then 
by the same law and principle our thoughts 
can make us glad and happy. If our thoughts 
have stirred us to bitterness and hatred and 
enmity, just as surely our thoughts can awaken 
within us a spirit of sweetness, friendship and 
love. If our thoughts have led us to fear, fore- 
bodings and failure, then be assured that our 
thoughts can inspire us with courage, confidence 
and victory. 

In the light of this fundamental truth, "As a 
man thinketh in his heart so is he," we are the 
architects of our own moods, the builders of our 
own characters. Our thinking, our mental atti- 
tude toward life's experiences, toward Christ 



A Fundamental Truth 17 

and God, has been and will continue to be a 
determining factor in our righteousness or un- 
righteousness, in our happiness or unhappiness, 
in our success or failure in life. 



Ill 

MENTAL ATTITUDE OR MIND 
CONTROL 

Since our thoughts make us what we are as 
to character and disposition, good or bad, happy 
or unhappy, timid or courageous, successful or 
unsuccessful, it is of the highest importance that 
we control our thinking. It is our duty and 
privilege to maintain at all times a proper men- 
tal attitude toward the fulfillment of life's pur- 
poses and pleasures. We should entertain only 
wholesome, helpful and uplifting thoughts. 
Mental attitude, or mind control, becomes at 
once one of the greatest and most important 
problems. In solving this problem, it is neces- 
sary for us to understand how the mind acts, 
as only with such understanding can we attain 
proper mind control. 



i* 



Mental Attitude or Mind Control 19 

THE BRAIN IS NOT THE MIND 

The brain, spinal cord, and nerve fibers, even 
to the finger tips, are but the media through 
which the mind expresses itself. It is true, 
that we are said to "Think with our finger tips," 
and we all know that in especially rapid and 
skilled operations of the fingers, as in type- 
writing, and piano playing, the movements are 
performed much more rapidly than the mind 
can voluntarily and consciously direct. Yet the 
brain and the entire network of the nerve fibers 
are but the instruments of the mind for the 
execution of its will. 

THE HUMAN WILL IS SUPREME 

The mind itself has the power to receive or 
reject the thoughts which affect the life and 
character favorably or unfavorably. Nothing 
can enter and take effective hold upon the human 
life without the consent of the will. 

The will, like the guard at the "Draw 
Bridge" in the old feudal days, has the power 
to admit or bar, to receive or reject every 



20 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

thought that would affect the life within favor- 
ably or unfavorably. 

God created man a free moral agent, and 
hence respects the personality and sacredness 
of his will. No influence or power in the uni- 
verse, not even God himself, can force either 
good or ill upon the human mind without the 
consent of the will. 

When we more fully realize this fact, we will 
begin to repress and reject all evil, irritating, 
distressing, corrupting thoughts from our minds. 
We will refuse absolutely to admit, entertain 
or retain thoughts, or a mental attitude, which 
fosters the ills of life. We will instead invite, 
encourage and entertain only such thoughts and 
states of mind as tend to benefit and bless. 

God never made the human mind, which is 
the earthly reflection of the soul, to be at the 
mercy of every corrupting, distressing and de- 
stroying emotion and influence that might pre- 
sent itself. Instead he has created within the 
mind itself a power and potency which in co- 
operation with the divine mind is able to meet 
every demand for self-protection and self-pres- 
ervation. 



Mental Attitude or Mind Control 21 

THOUGHT AFFECTS THE LIFE 

Every thought which the mind registers upon 
the brain and through the brain affects the life 
for good or ill, for happiness or unhappiness, 
for success or failure. Every thought which 
passes through the brain helps or hurts the body, 
mind and soul, and thus makes for or against 
health, happiness, success, character and des- 
tiny. When we appreciate this fundamental 
fact we will realize the supreme importance of 
mental attitude and mind control. 

THE MIND CAN BE RIGHTLY DIRECTED 

While we can not stop the mind from think- 
ing as long as there is a healthful brain, through 
which thought can run, we can determine what 
the mind shall think about. We can direct our 
minds to the subjects upon which they shall 
dwell. 

Mental concentration or mind control is a 
subject concerning which practical, modern psy- 
chology is deeply concerned, but such concen- 
tration and control is a power which as yet 
but few possess in its full measure. The follow- 



22 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

ing incident will illustrate and perhaps illumi- 
nate the above statement. 

In the days of Circuit riding, Elder Jones 
reached his appointment on Saturday evening, 
and passed the night, as was the custom, at the 
home of his leading deacon. He provided for 
the comfort of his riding horse, a more than 
usually attractive animal, which was equipped 
with a new bridle and saddle, in the deacon's 
stable. 

On Sunday the Elder preached an earnest and 
impressive sermon on the importance of fixing 
the mind upon the higher things of life. Fol- 
lowing the services, the discussion of the sermon 
was continued between the Elder and his deacon 
at the dinner table and the importance of mental 
concentration naturally arose. As the exchange 
of opinion progressed, the Elder was led to 
feel that the deacon regarded the difficulty of 
keeping the mind fixed undividedly upon a single 
line of thought too lightly. And, having ob- 
served that the deacon had cast a somewhat 
longing, if not covetous eye, upon his fine rid- 
ing horse, he was led to make the following 
proposition: "Deacon, if you will repeat the 
Lord's prayer through from beginning to end 



Mental Attitude or Mind Control 23 

without permitting your mind to wander to any 
other subject, I will give you my riding horse, 
out in your stable." 

The deacon, confident of his power of mental 
control and anxiously glad of a chance on so 
fine an animal, promptly accepted the Elder's 
challenge. "All right/' said the Elder; "be- 
gin." The deacon, with closed eyes, started in. 
"Our Father who art in heaven" — then sud- 
denly stopped and opened his eyes and, looking 
at the Elder, said: "Will you throw in the 
saddle and bridle?" "There," said the Elder, 
"you have lost." Mental concentration was 
not so easy as the deacon thought. 

Whether easy or difficult, the mind should 
be properly controlled and the thought rightly 
directed. Most of our sins, sicknesses, suffer- 
ings, and failures, come from unwisely and need- 
lessly dwelling in our thought upon unworthy 
desires, appetites, emotions and ambitions; or 
by dwelling upon worthy desires, appetites, emo- 
tions and ambitions, with improper motives and 
ends in view. The bulk of the world's unhappi- 
ness, which we all admit to be of gigantic pro- 
portions, is created by foolishly dwelling in 
thought upon the little annoyances and petty 



24 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

disappointments of life. 

It becomes extremely important, therefore, 
for our happiness, health, success and mastery 
that we cultivate and maintain such mental atti- 
tudes as invite happiness and dispel misery, pro- 
mote health and banish sickness, win success and 
avoid failure, and emphasize the good to the 
mastery of the evil. 



IV 



THE CAUSE AND CURE OF UNHAP- 
PINESS 

The majority of us place more mental em- 
phasis upon the things which we do not possess 
than we place upon the things which we do 
possess. We permit the mind to dwell more 
upon the thoughts which make for unhappiness 
than upon the conditions which make for joy. 
We think more upon the desires and appetites 
which injure the body, distress the mind and 
mar the soul than we do upon those desires and 
appetites which bear health to the body, hap- 
piness to the mind, and enrichment to the soul. 
In a word we think more of the mere enjoy- 
ment of the appetites and desires of the body 
than we do of the high purposes and ends for 
which those appetites and desires were created. 
Thus, we place more mental emphasis upon 
the causes of life's ills than we do upon 

25 



26 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

the conditions of life's joys. We are unhappy 
simply because we lay more stress upon the 
things which make for unhappiness than we do 
upon those conditions which would bear to us 
joy. 

The majority of people never have anything 
but trouble, to judge by their talk. Even the 
newspapers assume that their readers are more 
interested in the accidents, calamities, misfor- 
tunes and discords of life than they are in the 
harmony, health and happiness of society. Hap- 
pily for the world, some few people never have 
any troubles, not at least that they mention. 
A certain devout, Christian lady who was given 
to recounting her miseries rather than to count- 
ing her mercies, inquired of a friend, who car- 
ried his years rather lightly: "How is it that 
you never have any troubles?" He replied: 
"My troubles bother me enough without telling 
them to others. n Her friend had discovered 
the psychological and practical secret of happi- 
ness. He had learned that every time one re- 
peats his trouble to another he magnifies it; 
and every time he goes over it in his own mind 
he emphasizes it. 

It is true that there are folks made unhappy 



The Cause and Cure of Unhappiness 27 

by nervous worry, who feel that they must tell 
their troubles to some one. Perhaps it is some 
good housewife, who has spent a sleepless night 
worrying over some petty annoyance, who feels 
that she must share her trouble with her next- 
door neighbor. She can not wait until her 
breakfast dishes are "done," but hurries over 
to tell her troubles. By the time she has re- 
peated her trouble in all its little details, it has 
increased to twice the magnitude it was before 
and become so great she must share it with a 
second neighbor, and then a third, and some- 
times with a fourth, fifth and even a sixth neigh- 
bor. When she finally returns home just in 
time to wash the breakfast dishes and get din- 
ner for her husband, she has had the privilege 
of sharing her troubles with six of her neigh- 
bors, and also the great comfort (?) of feeling 
that her trouble is half a dozen times greater 
than when she left her home. 

But we all need sympathy? True, but there 
are but few people in position to give real sym- 
pathy; they all have troubles of their own. A 
certain business man in Chicago had the follow- 
ing notice posted in a conspicuous place in his 
office: u Tell your trouble to a policeman, I 



28 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

have troubles of my own." Perhaps the police- 
man also has troubles of his own. Then better 
not tell your troubles at all if by telling you 
emphasize them and keep them fresh in mind. 
Or, better yet, if you must tell them, tell them 
to God and to Christ. Jesus said, "Come unto 
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." When the disciples 
of John the Baptist had lost their leader 
through Herod's headsman, we are told that 
"They took up the body and buried it and went 
and told Jesus." 

Jesus Christ is the great sympathizer. He 
himself was troubled in all points like as we 
are. He knows all about our troubles, your 
troubles, my troubles, any troubles. "He is 
able to do," for us in our troubles, "exceeding 
abundantly above all that we ask or think." 

We will need less sympathy, however, if we 
learn to place more emphasis upon the good 
things we have and think less about the little ills 
of life. "As one thinketh in his heart so is 
he." The optimist is the one who emphasizes 
the things which make for success and happi- 
ness. The pessimist is the one who emphasizes 
the things that make for failure and unhappi- 



The Cause and Cure of Unhappiness 29 

ness. The major portion of this world's unrest 
and unhappiness is due to the ignorant, foolish, 
shortsighted, unreasonable and unaccountable 
habit that people have of emphasizing the 
things which make them miserable, rather than 
those things which would give them joy. 

It is a well-known psychological principle that 
the dwelling continually upon any one experience 
or emotion of life unduly magnifies and distorts 
it out of all due perspective and proportion. 
Thus one little disappointment or petty annoy- 
ance, if continually dwelt upon, will take all 
the joy and happiness out of the most highly 
favored life. One small misfortune or unim- 
portant failure, constantly held before the mind, 
has rendered many a life miserable and filled 
at last an untimely grave. 

One cold November night a man slipped away 
from a group of his friends who were gathered 
in a warm and inviting club house, and climbed 
the railing of the river bridge and dropped 
thirty feet to the icy flood below. A few 
strangled cries for help, which fell faintly upon 
the ears of those who were too distant to render 
aid, and the voice was forever stilled in death. 
The wife had become a widow and the two 



30 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

sons were fatherless. 

That man had the prospect of many years of 
life and usefulness. He was still capable and 
efficient and had many friends. He had a family 
to love and to live for and make happy. Yet, 
forgetful of all of life's hopes, promises, joys 
and duties, and emphasizing for weeks a single 
misfortune, he so magnified his only trouble that 
he literally drove himself to a suicide's death, 
and a suicide's grave. He left behind, as a 
heritage to his wife and sons, the sad memory 
of his untimely and unhappy end. 

We read of one who in olden times was most 
unhappy, because just one little desire of his 
life was unfulfilled. This man had wealth, 
friends and honors in abundance. To crown 
it all he was blessed with a wife and many chil- 
dren to fill his life with love and laughter. 
Yet we read that, in spite of all these blessings, 
he went home one day from his place of honor 
by the king's side and called his family and 
friends around him to tell them what a miser- 
ably unhappy man he was. By way of magnify- 
ing his misery he recounted to them his riches, 
honor, power and the number of his possessions, 
attendants, friends and family. He even did 



The Cause and Cure of Unhappiness 31 

not fail to mention the great honor that had 
come to him that very day in the form of an 
invitation to dine alone with the king at a ban- 
quet, to be prepared and served by the hands 
of the beautiful queen. Yet he exclaims, "AH 
these things avail me nothing as long as I see 
Mordecai, the Jew, sitting in a place of honor 
in the king's gate." 

Haman, according to his own statements, had 
everything in the world his heart wished, every- 
thing but one. He was just one bow short. 
Mordecai refused to bow to him. Haman so 
emphasized this one little disappointment to his 
ambition and petty jealousy incident thereto that 
he made himself, his friends and his family 
most unhappy. In brooding over this one dis- 
appointment in his life he went so far as to 
plot the destruction of the entire Jewish race 
to rid himself of his hated rival. Because of his 
wrong mental attitude he not only destroyed 
the joy that might have been his but he paid 
the penalty of his folly with his own life on the 
highest gallows ever erected for a human exe- 
cution. 

Haman is not the only man whom the records 
of history show to have been miserable because 



32 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

he emphasized the one thing in life which he 
was denied. We read also of one, King Ahab, 
who set his heart upon the vineyard of Naboth. 
When Naboth refused to part with the inheri- 
tance from his father for money, Ahab went 
home and went to bed and turned his face to the 
wall, and like a spoiled child refused to eat. 
In emphasizing his disappointment in not se- 
curing the coveted vineyard, he forgot all the 
other blessings of his kingdom, and refused to 
be comforted even as the ruler of Israel, until 
his wife, Jezebel, with more energy than piety, 
secured for him the coveted vineyard through 
the death plot that put Naboth out of the way. 
But both Ahab and Jezebel, like Haman, paid 
for their folly and wickedness with their lives 
when the dogs licked their blood in Samaria 
and Jezreel. 

These were unhappy simply because they 
foolishly emphasized the one thing that made 
them unhappy instead of the many things which 
would have filled them with satisfaction. Let 
us not judge them too harshly, however, lest in 
passing sentence upon them we condemn our- 
selves. We have all been unhappy at times 
because we placed too much stress upon the 



The Cause and Cure of Unhappiness 33 

thing which made us miserable. We have failed 
to enjoy the good things of life on account of 
dwelling too much upon the bad, the disagree- 
able and the unpleasant. 

Many miss the joys and beauties of God's 
glad summer time because it is so "Awfully 
hot." The very same people overlook the bless- 
ings of the bracing and invigorating winter 
weather because it is "So terribly cold." Such 
folks would find still more fault if it should 
snow in July and sizzle in January. 

A neighbor was complaining of too much 
rain, as it compelled him to mow his lawn so 
frequently. We suggested that the oftener it 
became necessary for him to mow his lawn, the 
larger crop of hay the farmer would harvest, 
and that if he never had to mow his lawn, its 
beauty would be lost and the farmer would have 
no hay. When we are depressed and uncomfor- 
table because of a series of rainy days, we 
should ask ourselves what would become of 
us if the sun always shone. 

On a hot, dry evening in the latter part of 
May a number of commercial travelers gath- 
ered in a certain hotel in South Dakota for 
supper and lodging. They were all somewhat 



34 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

depressed and discouraged. On comparing 
notes they agreed that it had been a poor day 
for business. There had been no rain for six 
weeks and the farmers were afraid of another 
dry season. Merchants were refusing to place 
orders for new goods until rain should give 
promise of crops. It was agreed that the lack 
of business was due to the dry weather. 

The next morning when these same salesmen 
came down to breakfast a steady, refreshing 
rain was falling. One of the number at the 
table who had planned a trip across the country 
in an open buggy to see a prospective customer 
was cursing the rain. Another one of the 
travelers present at the table quietly remarked 
that "the gentleman would swear worse if it 
never rained." 

It is easy to take all the happiness out of 
any day and any season by emphasizing the tem- 
porarily unpleasant side. Bless you, dear 
croaker, it takes all kinds of days to make good 
days, good for seeding, good for growing, good 
for harvesting, good for the ice man, good for 
the coal man, and good even for grumblers, 
like some people whom you and I know. 

We can all be happy in any kind of weather 



The Cause and Cure of Unhappiness 35 

or in any season of the year if we learn to em- 
phasize only the blessings and benefits incident 
to such weather or season. As healthy and as 
happy people as you find anywhere in the world 
are right here in Illinois where it is so sizzling 
hot in summer and so dreadfully cold in winter. 

It is the little inconveniences and petty dis- 
appointments of life that bulk larger and weigh 
more in the scale of human happiness than the 
richest benefits and greatest blessings. People 
bear the sacrifices of pestilence, famine and war 
with courage and fortitude but worry them- 
selves sick over some minor disappointment in 
connection with the daily duties of ordinary 
life. I have known a mother to go to bed at 
night with a sick headache caused by worrying 
over the one loaf of bread, out of the half dozen 
she was baking, which came out of the oven 
slightly burned. She was unable to rejoice in 
the fact that five of the loaves came out russet 
brown and done to the turn. Because one, just 
one, was a little over done, her happiness for 
the remainder of the day was spoiled as well 
as her rest for the night. She emphasized the 
minor failure instead of the larger success. 

The real antidote for unhappiness lies in our 



36 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

ability to cease from thinking only of the an- 
noyances of life, and to refrain from constantly 
re-calling to our minds and repeating to others 
only our unfortunate experiences. Since the 
mind must and will think upon something, let 
us set an example for ourselves and others 
by reporting only the good things, the happier 
circumstances and fortunes of life. This mental 
habit will direct our minds to the things which 
make for happiness instead of worry and regret. 
A young mother was sitting at her work table 
with a twelve months old child in her arms, try- 
ing to do some mending. The child began to 
cry violently for the possession of the work- 
basket near by. The mother quietly turned the 
child's attention from the basket, which it could 
not have, to a bunch of keys which it could have. 
The child instantly ceased crying and began to 
enjoy the jingling of keys. That mother had 
never studied the psychology of the class room, 
but she understood the practical psychology of 
the child mind. She knew that the only way 
to make the child happy was to turn its mind 
from the thing it wanted and could not have to 
something it could have. We are all but chil- 
dren grown older and taller, and the same prin- 



The Cause and Cure of Unhappiness 37 

ciples of mental action control us still. The only 
way we can cease from being unhappy is to 
take the mind off the thing that is making us 
unhappy, and fix it upon the thing that will make 
us happy. Let us count our mercies instead of 
our miseries, tell our joys and hopes rather 
than our disappointments and fears. Let us 
learn to see the good instead of the bad in our- 
selves and others. 

Tradition has it that centuries ago a dead 
dog lay in the streets of Jerusalem. The life- 
less body was bedraggled, broken and mangled. 
Various passersby remarked, u How ugly!" 
"How hideous!" "How repulsive!" At last 
one came and, as he stood and looked in pity 
and sympathy, he exclaimed, "How beautiful 
his teeth; they are like pearl!" When the 
stranger had passed on some one said it was 
Jesus. He could see beauty even in a dead 
dog. It would greatly multiply the happiness 
of the world if all would form the mental habit 
of seeing the beautiful and the good in every 
person and in every thing. Learn to take pleas- 
ure in what you possess instead of worrying 
about what you would have but can not attain. 
Make it a habit of life to speak of the joys 



38 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

you have been permitted to experience rather 
than to complain about the disappointments you 
have suffered. "According to your faith be 
it unto you." You can take happiness or you 
can take unhappiness. Your own mental atti- 
tude will determine which shall be yours. 



THE REMEDY FOR SOCIAL DISCORD 

One of the delightful things of this life is 
the friendship and companionship of others. 
This we call Social Fellowship. Some people 
always find themselves surrounded by scores 
of agreeable and happy people, while others 
scarcely have an intimate friend in the world. 
Since the desire for friendship and social fellow- 
ship is well-nigh universal, why is it that some 
folks have so many friends and others are prac- 
tically left to themselves? 

Even in early school life some begin to feel 
themselves neglected and snubbed, and they lay 
the blame to the faults or jealousies of others, 
rather than to any failure in themselves. As 
such individuals grow older they find that the 
same attitude of people toward them continues. 

If one is not popular, is without friends and 
seems to be shunned, he may be sure that there 

39 



40 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

is a reason for it, and that the reason is not 
always in the makeup of the other people, but 
in his own character and spirit. If people do 
not like us and find no bond of affinity to make 
companionship agreeable, there is a reason for 
it and that reason often lies within ourselves. 

We read that one, Jacob, the father of twelve 
sons, "Loved Joseph more than all his chil- 
dren." At first glance this might seem like 
an unjust and unreasonable spirit of partiality, 
due to the fancy of an aged father, in his dotage, 
for the son of his old age. But a careful study 
of the character of Joseph and the history of 
his accomplishments will reveal the fact that if 
Jacob loved Joseph more than all his children, 
there was a good reason for that love. Joseph's 
disposition and character far excelled that of 
all the other sons of Jacob. 

If the people about us do not like us and 
are not friendly to us in school, church or so- 
ciety, let us be sure that there is a reason for 
their attitude. The explanation is not far to 
seek: it lies within ourselves and in our own 
characters. "He that would have friends must 
show himself friendly." 

People have friends because they emphasize 



The Remedy for Social Discord 41 

the things that make for friendship. Such folks 
have the common sense and good taste to em- 
phasize the things and traits upon which they 
and others agree instead of those things about 
which they differ. They dwell upon those 
themes and thoughts which awaken fellowship 
and affinity and friendship. 

Fidelity to truth and principles is always 
commendable, but a spirit of criticism and dis- 
agreement over unimportant and trivial matters 
destroys friendship. It is the "little foxes 
that destroy the vines. " Chauncey Depew in 
his prime was especially fond of an argument 
and was seldom worsted by any of his friends. 
We are told that on a certain occasion he met 
a Scotchman of his acquaintance and they fell 
into a discussion. For once Depew seemed to 
be getting the worst of the exchange of ideas, 
which rather upset and irritated his usual even 
temper. In order to make up for lack of argu- 
ment, he retaliated upon his Scotch friend with 
the remark, "No wonder you Scotchmen are all 
dyspeptic, you are so confounded contentious 
that you won't permit even your food to agree 
with you." 

The man without friends is the man who lays 



42 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

too much emphasis upon the things wherein he 
and his acquaintances differ. He dwells too 
much upon the themes about which they dis- 
agree. He foolishly insists that every one else 
must see things just as he sees them. He em- 
phasizes those things which make for discord, 
instead of those qualities which make for har- 
mony and affinity, which is the basis of all happy 
and lasting friendship. 

The growing tendency of this age of nervous 
stress is to emphasize the thought wherein we 
differ, and to dwell upon those things which dis- 
please, rather than upon those qualities which 
attract. Thus we are rapidly becoming a race 
of fault finders. This tendency is reflected in 
the crowded condition of our divorce courts. 

Husbands and wives can not expect to live 
together happily if they foolishly persist in em- 
phasizing the things about which they disagree, 
instead of dwelling upon those themes and 
qualities in which they are united, and which 
will make them happy. As to whether marriage 
is a failure or not, depends upon the place of 
mental emphasis. A husband can quarrel with 
the most queenly woman which God ever made 
if he persists in emphasizing some trifling thing 



The Remedy for Social Discord 43 

in her person and character which may not be 
exactly pleasing to him. A wife can find in- 
compatibility of temperament in the most 
princely husband in the world if she foolishly 
insists upon discussing the one thing about 
which they differ. 

The secret of fellowship in the marriage rela- 
tion, as well as out of it, lies in placing the men- 
tal emphasis upon the things which make for 
harmony, unity and oneness. The antidote 
for social discord, for the divorce courts, is for 
friends and neighbors, husbands and wives, to 
place greater stress upon the things wherein 
they agree, and to forget the things about which 
they differ. 

Social fellowship is fostered and social dis- 
cord banished by looking for and emphasizing 
the personal qualities that please, and at the 
same time overlooking such personal character- 
istics as may offend. Such a mental attitude will 
produce social fellowship and friendship, and 
thus become an antidote which will counteract 
many of the discords of our social life. 



VI 



THE MENTAL ANTIDOTE FOR FORE- 
BODING 

Nervous people suffer untold distress from 
a subconscious and undefined but ever-present 
fear that something unfortunate or dreadful is 
going to happen. They live in a state of an- 
ticipation and fear of trouble or misfortune. 
While this state is abnormal and indicates a 
morbid condition of the mind, the agitation 
caused by such mental attitude is none the less 
disturbing and distressing. 

Frank, the farmer's son, accompanied Mag- 
gie, the miller's daughter, home from church 
Sunday evening. As this was Maggie's first 
real company the event made a very deep im- 
pression on her sensitive mind and heart. The 
next Monday morning found Maggie at the 
wash tub, busy with the family washing. Her 
mother, coming in unannounced, was surprised 

44 



The Mental Antidote for Foreboding 45 

to find her daughter, usually so cheerful, in 
tears. Much concerned, she inquired as to the 
cause of Maggie's grief. With maidenly re- 
serve and embarrassment, Maggie hesitated to 
make explanation. Her mother, now still more 
deeply anxious as to the cause of the flowing 
tears, pressed her daughter for an explanation, 
which came in broken speech between her sobs 
of grief. "Why, mother, I was just thinking, 
just thinking, that if Frank and I should get 
married and we should have a little boy, and 
he should go down to the mill pond and get 
drowned, how terribly we would feel." For- 
bid that we should be accused of provoking a 
smile at the expense of the highest and holiest 
relationship of life; not that, but the incident 
clearly reveals the tendency of the human mind 
to borrow trouble, and even pay heavy interest 
on an imaginary obligation which has not yet 
been incurred. 

The fact of the matter is that most of our 
troubles, like the Irishman's, never happen at 
all and we have had all our worry for nothing. 
If half the troubles we have anticipated had 
really happened, we would all have been dead 
long ago. The morbid mind takes the position 



46 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

that we should always be prepared for the worst 
and, by that very attitude, constantly antici- 
pates the worst. The healthful mind takes the 
position that the best way to prepare for the 
worst is to anticipate the good, and thus live 
in hope and expectation instead of foreboding 
and fear. 

Some people can not enjoy even the finest 
kind of a day because it is a "Weather breeder" 
and may bring a storm to-morrow. A few 
people can really enjoy a rainstorm, for they 
know that the sun always shines after the rain. 

An invalid lady was inquired of as to her 
health, when she replied, "Oh, I am better to- 
day, but I know that I shall be worse to-morrow, 
because I am always worse after I am better." 
A more fortunate and happy mental attitude 
would have been to have reminded herself that 
she was always better after she was worse. 

Nervous mothers endure untold mental suf- 
fering from a foreboding that something dis- 
astrous is going to happen to some of the chil- 
dren. They scarcely dare to let the children go 
out of their sight for fear of some misfortune 
or accident. When their children are out of 
sight they are in constant fear that they are 



The Mental Antidote for Foreboding 47 

sick, or in bad company, or in trouble of some 
kind. The mother who thus anticipates the 
worst for her children invites it, for the mind 
always invites to itself, and others, what it 
anticipates. She thus makes herself unhappy 
and withdraws from her loved ones the protect- 
ing power of the thought-force that anticipates 
health, safety and virtue. It is no uncommon 
experience for us to meet the very things return- 
ing to us that we have projected into the future 
in our thoughts. 

The only happy and helpful mental attitude 
toward the future is that which anticipates the 
best things for self and others and expects the 
good in life, and not the evil. "Never cross 
the bridge until you come to it," is a wise and 
pertinent proverb for worrying people. Happi- 
ness is impossible for those who, in addition to 
worrying over all the troubles they ever have 
had and all that they have now, persist in an- 
ticipating all the troubles they ever expect to 
have in the future. 

The major portion of the unhappiness of the 
world could be banished before sunrise to- 
morrow if people would adopt the mental atti- 
tude and habit of anticipating the best things 



48 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

of life instead of the worst, the good things in- 
stead of the bad. 

God, the father of infinite love and mercy, as 
well as of infinite power, created man for good- 
ness and happiness. He expects man to be 
happy, and is disappointed if he is miserable. 
God has placed more forces in this world that 
make for happiness than for misery. "I am 
come that ye might have life and have it more 
abundantly." "The earth is the Lord's, and the 
fullness thereof." "The rivers of God are full 
of water." "The trees of God are full of 
sap." "My cup runneth over." "My word 
shall be in you a well of water springing up 
unto everlasting life." "All that the father 
hath are mine." "All mine are thine." "All 
things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ 
is God's." "The joy of the Lord is your 
strength." "That my joy might remain in you 
and that your joy might be full." 

This perfection of divine strength and full- 
ness guarantees to every one who is in harmony 
with God, through Jesus Christ, the satisfaction 
of every real need. "My God shall supply all 
your need through the riches of his grace in 
Christ Jesus." "All things work together for 



The Mental Antidote for Foreboding 49 

good to them that love God, and who are called 
according to his purpose. " 

Every one who not only says, but actually 
feels, that "All things work together for good 
to them that love God," and whose own will 
is surrendered to God's will, is fortified against 
every foreboding fear and anticipation of dis- 
aster. The history of missionaries, martyrs 
and religious pioneers proves the possibility of 
peace and poise of mind under circumstances 
which naturally produce agitation and fear. 
God is infinitely more concerned for us, and 
for our children, than we possibly can be for 
ourselves. He is more intensely interested in 
the welfare of us all than we are. He delights 
to do for us that which will serve the highest 
ends and purposes of life. 

The best possible mental antidote for fore- 
bodings and fear is that mental attitude toward 
God, commonly called faith, which recognizes 
at all times that God our father, who was re- 
vealed to us as such by Jesus Christ, has planned 
for us the best things; and that He will do for 
us and in us and through us, no matter what 
our experiences may be, that which in the end 
is highest and best. u The Lord is my light 



50 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The 
Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall 
I be afraid?" Ps. 27: 1. 

Such a mental attitude will lead us to desire 
the best things, expect the best things, and be 
prepared to receive the best things for our- 
selves. We will learn in a short time also to 
see the best things in others and anticipate only 
the best things from others. 

Living in such a mental attitude and atmos- 
phere will soon soothe and quiet the strained 
and weakened nerves, which are the cause of 
foreboding. The morbid fears and fancies will 
disappear and a normal condition of healthful 
and happy-mindedness will return. 



VII 
POISE FOR THE UNBALANCED MIND 

Our public institutions for men and women 
of unbalanced minds are crowded and more 
buildings are in process of erection to care for 
the daily increasing number of those whose 
minds are devoid of poise and voluntary con- 
trol. Why do men and women become men- 
tally unbalanced? Why do so many become 
insane? 

While certain neurologists tell us that we 
are all crazy, more or less, only those whose 
minds are not under their own voluntary con- 
trol are legal subjects for our detention asylums. 
The majority of these, aside from those who 
have destroyed their nervous vitality by ex- 
cesses, will be found to have become mentally 
unbalanced by permitting the mind to dwell 
continuously upon one idea until that idea or 
thought became so fixed in the mind that they 

5i 



52 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

could think of nothing else. Continual think- 
ing upon the same idea creates, as it were, nerve 
paths in the brain, along which the often re- 
peated thought runs involuntarily and continu- 
ously. 

When the individual's mind continues to 
dwell upon one single thought or phase of 
thought, so that he can not get his mind off 
of that thought, he is said to have lost his 
mind. In a word he is mentally unbalanced, he 
is insane; or he has gone crazy if his thought 
is accompanied by violent actions. The indi- 
vidual thus affected has not really lost his mind; 
he has simply lost all voluntary control of his 
mind. 

To restore poise to the unbalanced mind is 
a matter of deep concern, both to the friends 
of the afflicted and the public. The administra- 
tion of drugs has long since been abandoned 
by the best neurologists, so far at least as any 
thought of restoring the mind to its normal con- 
dition by the drug is concerned. To get the 
mind off the one idea or thought that is dis- 
tressing it offers the surest hope of restoration. 
Hence, patients are now being given light tasks 
that will call into action other thoughts. Knit- 



Poise for the Unbalanced Mind 53 

ting, fancy work, sewing, tending a flower bed, 
cultivating a patch of ground and various other 
tasks suited to the condition of the patient are 
assigned, and good results are being obtained. 
In mental disturbances, however, an ounce 
of prevention is worth a good many pounds of 
cure, and psychologists, as well as neurologists, 
are placing special emphasis here. They are 
seeking to have the mind turned into another 
channel before the owner has lost voluntary 
control. The importance of this position is 
aptly illustrated in the story of the old 
darkie and his last dollar. A gentleman who 
was out for an early morning walk along 
the bank of a southern river saw an elderly 
colored man approaching at a distance. The 
darkie seemed to be in deep meditation as he 
walked along with his hands thrust deep in his 
trousers pockets. As he came nearer, suddenly 
he drew his right hand from his pocket and 
made a motion as though throwing something 
far out into the river. In a moment a splash 
followed the movement and the curiosity of the 
gentleman was considerably aroused to know 
what the old darkie had thrown away. So he 
drew near and accosted the colored man as 



54 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

follows: "My friend, what was that which 
you just now threw into the river?" The 
negro, with crestfallen look, hesitated for a 
moment and then replied: u To tell de hones' 
truf, boss, dat was de last dollar dat I had in 
do worl'." u Why, what on earth made you 
throw the last dollar you had in the world into 
the river?" "Well, boss, it was just like dis: 
I fell in love wid ole Zeke's yallow gal, an' I 
tried to persuad' her to marry me, but she re- 
fus'd. I pressed my suit, boss, for I jus' couldn't 
live widout dat gal, but she jus' wouldn't marry 
me. She said I was too ole and shif'less an' 
good fo' nothin'. 

"So, boss, I came home and tried to sleep, 
but I jus' couldn't sleep fo' thinkin' 'bout dat 
gal. I toss' an' toss' on my bed, but couldn't git 
my mine off fum dat gal. So I jes' got up and 
went down upon my knees beside de bed and 
ask de good Lord to help me git my mine off 
dat gal. I got back in bed, boss, an' tried to 
sleep, but I jes' toss'd an' toss'd all night and 
couldn't sleep for thinking 'bout dat gal. Now, 
boss, you knows dat when you gits yo mine on 
a thing and can't git yo mine off from dat thing 
you'se gwine to lose yo mine. So, boss, I jes' 



Poise for the Unbalanced Mind 55 

got up and cum'ed out heah along de ribber 
trying to think how in de worl' I was gwine 
to get my mine off dat gal. Den, boss, when 
I put my han' in my pocket and felt dat dollah, 
it jus' occur'd to me dat, if I threw dat dollah 
into de ribber, it would help me to git my mine 
off from dat yellow gal by thinkin' what a fool 
I wuz to throw de last dollah I had in de 
worl' into de ribber." 

The story may or may not be true but the old 
darkie's conclusion is absolutely sound and 
philosophical as well as psychological. If one 
gets his mind on a thing and can't get his mind 
off from that thing, u he's gwine to lose his 
mind." The recognition of this law of mental 
action has saved many a man and woman from 
the insane asylum, and a larger recognition of 
this law would save many more not only from 
the totally unbalanced mind but also from days 
and nights of needless worry and suffering. 

The physician who sends his neurotic patient 
to another climate for change of air, diet and 
water understands that the changing of scenery 
and the taking of the mind off from the thing 
which is agitating it by getting the attention 
fixed upon strange mountains, lakes, river and 



56 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

landscapes will do far more to restore balance 
and poise than the same air, water and diet 
could do at home. 

Let no unpleasant, irritating thought pass 
too frequently through the brain cells. Each 
time it is wearing a deeper and deeper groove, 
creating soon a well-worn nerve path from 
which it will be well-nigh impossible to expel 
it while the brain itself lasts. 

Mentally scolding, fault finding or arguing in 
your own mind by directing your thought to 
some absent one, as though present, greatly dis- 
turbs the poise and balance of the mind. It is 
easy for a nervous mother, whom we may use 
as a type of neurotic people, to go on mentally 
scolding a child, even long after the child 
has left her presence. The act has "gotten 
on to her nerves," and she goes over it again 
and again, storming at the child in her mind 
as though she were still present. "Why did 
Mary do such a thoughtless thing ?" "How 
could she be so careless?" "Why can not chil- 
dren be more thoughtful?" Thus many moth- 
ers, and others of nervous temperament, have 
lost poise of mind and fretted themselves into 
a chronic state of irritability by mentally scold- 



Poise for the Unbalanced Mind 57 

ing a child, a neighbor, or a helper. The habit 
of mental scolding may be extended toward the 
grocer, the baker, the butcher or the dress- 
maker, until the mind has no relaxation from 
the stress and strain thus put upon it. 

Mentally quarreling or arguing with those 
with whom you may differ should also be 
avoided. Whether real or fancied, by con- 
tinually arguing the matter in one's own mind 
the difference is greatly magnified; and the 
other party not being present to make known 
his side of the question and point of view, the 
whole problem becomes one-sided and distorted. 
The mental arguer thus feels himself much 
more greatly injured than though he had dis- 
cussed the matter with the party concerned 
face to face. Then, a mental quarrel can be 
continued and renewed in season and out of 
season indefinitely until the feelings are more 
harrowed and the mental poise more disturbed 
than though the second party were present to 
argue in person. If you have any difference 
with any one, have it out at once in person, if 
necessary, and then forget it forever and save 
your peace of mind. 

Mental fault finding must also be classed 



58 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

with mental scolding and mentally quarreling 
as destructive to the poise and balance of the 
mind, and these three states of the mind or 
mental attitudes should be carefully avoided if 
the normal poise and balance of the mind is to 
be preserved. 

The mental antidote for the unbalanced mind 
is that forethought which will prevent the mind 
dwelling too much or too long upon any ex- 
citing cause or thought, be it exhilarating or 
depressing, by directing the mind voluntarily 
or subjectively to other interesting thoughts and 
things. If the mind be already out of poise 
and balance no pains or expense should be 
spared to present situations and attractions that 
will furnish new thought upon which the mind 
may run. 



VIII 

THE MENTAL ANTIDOTE FOR 
FAILURE 

The statement is current that from sixty to 
eighty per cent, of men who start in business 
fail. Many of these succeed after making a 
second and even third start in life. An analysis 
of these failures would show many different 
primary causes for defeat. Many of these 
failures, however, could be traced to wrong 
mental attitude, to poor psychological insight 
on the part of the man who failed. 

In view of the above conclusion, business psy- 
chology is being emphasized and applied to 
every form of service and to every calling in 
life as never before. The human mind is no 
longer studied in a mere scholastic manner, 
making a scientific analysis of the human brain 
as to the intellect, will and emotions; but the 
human mind is now being studied in its actual 

59 



6o Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

workings in every-day life in its control of 
human conduct and action. 

As far then as wrong mental attitude is re- 
sponsible for man's failure in any of life's un- 
dertakings, so far may man become successful 
by assuming the right mental attitude toward 
achievement and success. 

We shall make no attempt here to discuss 
in detail the principles and applications of mod- 
ern psychology to the great theme of Success 
and Failure. We shall merely suggest some 
fundamental truths which, if appropriated by 
the individual as his own and applied in fixing 
his own mental attitude toward the problems 
confronting him in his calling or profession, 
will go far toward eliminating failure and in- 
suring success. 

RIGHT MENTAL ATTITUDE 

The apostle Paul was probably the most ef- 
fective and successful preacher of the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ that the world has ever seen. 
A study of his life and success will show that 
the auxiliary verb "Can" had a large place in 
his vocabulary and conduct, while that feeble 



The Mental Antidote for Failure 61 

and failure-producing word "Cant" had abso- 
lutely no place in his life. 

Modern research and experience is proving 
that Paul's mental attitude was sound from the 
viewpoint of both the scriptures and psychology, 
when he said, "I can do all things through 
Christ who strengtheneth me." From that day 
forth his "I can" of faith became the watch- 
word of his success. 



SOME RECOGNIZED FACTS 

"As a man thinketh so is he," and it is also 
equally true that "As a man thinketh so does 
he." "He can who thinks he can." He can't 
who thinks he can't. The CAN of faith is 
the surest way to success. The CAN'T of 
doubt is the shortest route to failure. The 
hand never reaches higher than the heart. 
Achievement, as a rule, is never greater than 
the courage. He who expects great things, 
undertakes great tasks and achieves great re- 
sults. 

Man's success in business, in his profession 
and in life's tasks in general never rises higher 
than his confidence in himself, in his powers of 



62 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

mind and body. No one can succeed who all 
the while doubts his ability to succeed, and 
who believes that he is going to fail. It has 
been said that "God himself can not use a 
discouraged man." He must first inspire the 
discouraged doubter with faith and confidence. 
There is no philosophy or psychology by which 
a man can accomplish that which he believes he 
can not perform. Nothing, however, can de- 
feat the man who believes that he CAN, re- 
solves that he CAN and wills that he CAN suc- 
ceed. Such a man can not be talked down, 
written down, laughed down, ridiculed down 
nor sat down upon. 

Proper self-confidence is not a vulgar quality 
of mind but a sacred talent. When one has a 
God-given duty to perform he has a right to 
believe, like the apostle Paul, that he can do 
all things that God has planned for him to do. 
Self-depreciation in the presence of a known 
duty is the cowardice of unbelief. God calls 
every man to seek the highest development of 
his own life and to use that development in 
rendering service to others, and especially to 
those who may in any way be dependent upon 
him. The right mental attitude is for each one 



The Mental Antidote for Failure 63 

to believe that he can do all that God calls him 
to do. 

Although the apostle Paul was called to some 
exceedingly difficult tasks, yet he never said, "I 
can't." He could and did say, truthfully, "I 
can do all things (that God calls me to do), 
through Christ who strengthened me." His 
willingness, coupled with his ability, became 
the channel through which the divine power 
could act effectively. The large place which 
the auxiliary verb CAN had in Paul's life 
made possible, under God, his great success. 

"God made man to have dominion." He 
intended man to be a master and not a slave. 
He expects him to be a success and not a fail- 
ure. He has no reward for the quitter and 
offers no crown to the man who fails. The 
divine emphasis is upon faith, mental confi- 
dence, which is the key to success not only in 
religion but in every calling of life. Man al- 
ways fails when his confidence fails. Doubt is 
the first crevasse in the dam of life which lets 
in the flood of failure. Hence, the man who is 
filled with doubt, who thinks of failure, who 
talks of failure, and who even walks like a fail- 
ure, carries with him an atmosphere which fore- 



64 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

dooms him to defeat. 

A wavering mind makes wavering execution. 
A confident mental attitude begets the force and 
accuracy that wins victories. Every athletic 
coach strives, from the day training begins, to 
instil confidence into his men. Every intelligent 
coach and trainer recognizes that contests in 
football, baseball, track meets, tennis, golf 
and even in the prize ring, have been lost before 
the struggle really began because of the lack 
of confidence on the part of the loser. What 
is true in sports is true in every contest and 
competition in life. 

RIGHT MENTAL EMPHASIS 

While lack of confidence has been a large 
factor in many of life's failures, wrong mental 
emphasis has also played an important part 
in numerous defeats. The nervous and appre- 
hensive, in facing the problems of life, have 
a tendency to dwell upon the difficulties to be 
encountered rather than to emphasize those 
factors which promise success. While both 
wisdom and prudence suggest the advisabil- 
ity of counting the full cost before entering 



The Mental Antidote for Failure 65 

upon any task, yet an over-emphasis of the dif- 
ficulties, either real or imaginary, leads to dis- 
couragement and defeat. Hence, it frequently 
happens that a single talent man, without spe- 
cial education but with a full stock of confi- 
dence, makes a larger success than the college- 
trained man who lacks the courage of faith. In 
fact, wide knowledge and over-culture often 
breeds increased timidity because of a too care- 
ful weighing of the hinderances to be met and 
thus to too much emphasis being placed upon 
the possibilities of failure. If "fools do some- 
times rush in where angels fear to tread," the 
fact remains that fools (?) by their very bold- 
ness often secure the victory while the wise (?) 
are timidly balancing the possibilities of de- 
feat. 

History affords few better illustrations of 
the psychological folly of emphasizing the 
things which make for defeat rather than those 
factors which suggest victory than is found in 
the story of Israel at Kadesh Barnea. God had 
promised his chosen people the Land of Canaan 
and they stood in plain view of the vine-clad 
hills and fertile valleys, the land of figs and 
olives and dates, the land of oil and wine, the 



66 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

land reported to be literally "flowing with milk 
and honey." They hesitate, however, to at- 
tempt to enter, in view of the reports which 
had come to them of the strong, warlike people 
in possession of the land. Hence, they selected 
from their company twelve men who should go 
over and spy out the conditions and report to 
them. 

When these twelve spies had returned, after 
forty days of investigation, they all agreed in 
their report as to the fruitfulness and desir- 
ability of the country. Ten of them, however, 
emphasized the difficulties in taking possession 
of the land owing to the strongly-walled cities 
and giant warriors to be overcome. Two of 
the spies expressed the opinion that, however 
strong the walls might be and however great 
the giant warriors were, Israel was abundantly 
able to conquer the land for, said they, "The 
Lord our God will fight for us and we shall 
be stronger than they." 

But the children of Israel harkened to the 
voice of the ten who emphasized the things 
which made for defeat rather than to give heed 
to the two who emphasized the factors which 
made for victory and thus they turned their 



The Mental Antidote for Failure 67 

backs upon the "Promised Land" and marched 
back into the wilderness and lost their oppor- 
tunity for success. 

While the proportion of ten to two may not 
hold, we still find many men to-day in business 
and professional life emphasizing the factors 
which make for failure instead of dwelling upon 
the facts which promise success and victory. 
Business psychology as well as common sense 
teaches that confidence is essential to success, 
and that nothing destroys confidence more quick- 
ly than the habit of dwelling upon the diffi- 
culties to be met and the unfavorable conditions 
to be encountered. Yet, almost every financial 
panic has had its inception in a lack of confi- 
dence. Such lack of confidence has usually been 
created because at certain periods our business 
and commercial leaders have begun to empha- 
size, in concert as it were, those conditions and 
factors which make for financial depression and 
failure. 

CONFIDENCE CAN BE CULTIVATED 

If confidence can be destroyed by emphasiz- 
ing the factors which lead to failure, confidence 



68 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

can also be created by dwelling upon those con- 
ditions which tend to success and victory. In 
case the lack of confidence is due to natural 
timidity, the individual should cultivate cour- 
age, then more courage and then still more 
courage. The will should also be cultivated 
so that when a decision is made it should stay 
made. With many people to come to a deci- 
sion, to "make up the mind," is easier than it 
is to keep the mind "made up" after a deci- 
sion has been reached. Refuse to let the fear 
of failure enter the mind by refusing to dwell 
upon fear-producing thoughts and conditions. 
"Fear," said Napoleon, "I don't know him." 
Napoleon's mental habit was to refuse to recog- 
nize fear-producing conditions. Having set his 
face to a task, he burned his bridges behind 
him and refused to look back. He looked for- 
ward only when once his decision was made 
and that forward look had in it the anticipation 
of victory. He who eliminates the impossible 
from his own mind will come the nearest to 
working what we are pleased to term "mod- 
ern miracles." 

Let each one cultivate a fixed faith, a per- 
manent mental attitude that success in life is 



The Mental Antidote for Failure 69 

natural and normal, that failure is unnatural and 
abnormal. God made man for success and not 
failure. Jesus Christ declared to his disciples 
that, "With God all things are possible, " and 
he set over against this statement another, 
"Nothing shall be impossible to you," nothing 
that God has in his purpose for you to accom- 
plish. Thus, we have a right to believe in suc- 
cess, to expect success and to live for success. 
"According to your faith be it unto you," is as 
true in business life as in religious life. Each 
one will have just that measure of success in 
life that he has the mental confidence to take 
and no more. Success awaits only those who 
think that they CAN succeed, who believe that 
they CAN succeed and who resolve that they 
WILL succeed. 



IX 
MENTAL ATTITUDE AND HEALTH 

It is now established beyond question that 
the mind bears a close and vital relation to the 
physical health of the body. Within recent 
years much discussion has been had and many 
books written upon one phase or another of 
mental healing or mind cures. In some in- 
stances organizations have been formed for the 
primary purpose of giving special emphasis to 
the principle of healing without drugs. A care- 
ful study of the positions taken by these dif- 
ferent writers and advocates will reveal that 
practically the same principle is involved in the 
position taken by the extreme advocate of 
divine healing clear through to the extreme 
claims made by the professor of mental sugges- 
tion, purely through absent treatment. The real 
purpose of each and all of these advocates is 
to bring the mind into a state of poise and bal- 

70 



Mental Attitude and Health 71 

ance and confidence in which the nerve centers 
will be free from agitation and irritation and 
thus be in condition to function normally in re- 
lation to the bodily secretions, which is the real 
secret of restoring and preserving physical 
health. 

With the nervous system, the medium 
through which the mind functions, acting nor- 
mally, the bodily secretions will be carried on 
so perfectly that the health will result. Even 
when the secretory functions of the body are 
overtaxed by indulgence, accidents or infection, 
a calm and confident faith in the recuperative 
forces of life is the mightiest factor for health 
that has yet been revealed. Faith healers, mind 
healers, massage healers, movement healers and 
medical healers all, if intelligent, seek to awaken 
confidence of recovery in the mind of the patient 
and then rely upon the vital forces of life to 
work the restoration of health. 

SOME RECOGNIZED FACTS 

The mind controls the bodily functions 
through the medium of the nervous system. 
This control is voluntary and direct as in case 



72 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

of the movement of hands, feet, head or trunk 
of the body. This mental control is also invol- 
untary and indirect as seen in the action of the 
organs of digestion, secretion and elimination 
of waste matter. Mind control may also in- 
clude both voluntary and involuntary action, as 
may be illustrated in the breathing or in the 
stimulation of the action of the heart and other 
organs of the body by fixing the will upon them 
for the purpose of inciting increased action. 

Mental moods exert a marked influence upon 
the bodily functions. One may be just sitting 
down to a tempting meal with an appetite keen 
and eager and he receives a telegram announc- 
ing the sudden death of an absent member of 
the family. His appetite vanishes instantly and 
he can not force himself to eat a single mouth- 
ful of food although the stomach remains just 
as empty as before the telegram was received. 
The bad news paralyzed at once the action of 
the organs of secretion and digestion. We have 
come to understand from investigation and 
experience that other mental moods, such as 
anger, hate, fear, anxiety and mental worry of 
any kind, affect unfavorably the normal action 
of our organs of digestion and secretion, and 



Mental Attitude and Health 73 

thus have a direct bearing upon our physical 
health. We are compelled to accept the fact 
that physical health can be affected, both di- 
rectly and subjectively, through the mind. 

In view of the facts just stated, the proverb 
of Solomon, "As a man thinketh so is he," 
applies to man's body as well as to his moral 
nature. If, therefore, our thought plays an 
important part in producing illness it must also 
be equally true that our thinking has an im- 
portant place in restoring health. In fact, just 
so far as our thoughts have had a part in pro- 
ducing weakness or sickness of the body, just 
so far right thinking may have a place in bring- 
ing recovery and health. 

ALL HEALING IS DIVINE HEALING 

All healing is DIVINE. The DEVIL never 
healed any one and never will. The forces 
that make for evil, by whatever name you 
choose to designate them, produce disease, sick- 
ness and death. The vital, the divine forces of 
life are always working for recovery and 
health. All real healing takes place through 
the operation of the laws of life. The laws 



74 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

of life are the laws of God, and the forces of 
life are divine forces which God has implanted 
in every human being at the inception of life. 
If we will face the proposition fairly and 
frankly, we shall be forced to conclude, what- 
ever may have been our preconceived opinion, 
that all healing is divine healing. 

It is a scientific fact that effects can be pre- 
vented and remedied only by removing the 
cause. Disease of the body can be prevented 
or removed only by removing the cause. The 
treatment of disease has undergone a complete 
revolution in the history of the practice of medi- 
cine during the past centuries. Sickness of the 
body is now attributed to entirely different 
causes and sources than those assigned a cen- 
tury ago. Remedial agents for the cure of 
disease have also undergone a like revolution. 
Incantations, charms and magical concoctions 
no longer have a place in the practice of heal- 
ing among intelligent people. Drugs are still 
administered to sick people but more with a 
view of encouraging the mind of the patient 
than with the belief on the part of the physician 
that drugs have any power to increase the vital 
forces which are the real source of healing. 



Mental Attitude and Health 75 

The logical conclusion is that recovery from 
sickness rests, in the end, in the vital forces of 
the body and not in the drug administered. 

Since the real source of healing is found in 
the vital forces of the body and since God is 
the author and creator of the vital forces that 
make for healing, we are forced to conclude 
that the power that heals is divine power. How- 
ever, having accepted this proposition it still 
remains for us to understand and appropriate 
its truth and make it effective in relation to our 
own physical health. 

It is impossible for us to discuss in detail, in 
this brief space, the HOW? and WHY? the 
mind plays such an important part in assisting 
the divine forces of life in overcoming sickness 
and in restoring health. We must confine our 
discussion and statement and explanation of 
three general propositions, the truth which each 
individual may appropriate as his own and ap- 
ply it to himself in its practical relation to his 
bodily health. We have reason to believe that 
if each one will study his own experiences care- 
fully and accept the following propositions and 
apply them to his own individual case he will 
sooner or later come into possession of all the 



y6 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

health that God has for him to enjoy so far 
as the mind, or God through the mind, can 
bring health to his body. 



GOD MADE THE HUMAN BODY TO BE WELL 

It may be stated as a general principle that 
God made the human body to be well. It is the 
finest piece of mechanism this world has ever 
seen. Having made the body to be well, he 
naturally desires it to be well and expects it to 
be well. If the body is ill, the fault is not with 
God but with the individual. As long as we 
treat this perfect piece of physical mechanism 
properly it will function smoothly in all its 
parts and relations. Only when something irri- 
tating is admitted into this body through the 
mouth or the mind is its harmony disturbed 
and discord set up. This we call sickness or 
dis-ease, which means lack of ease, absence of 
harmony. 

There are many causes, both immediate and 
remote, for sickness. All sickness, however, is 
due to the violations of the laws of life; and 
by this we mean the violation of the laws under 
which the body was made to operate harmoni- 



Mental Attitude and Health 77 

ously. Many of these violations are committed 
through the indulgences of the appetites and 
desires of the body. However, one of the most 
potent factors in bringing on disease is the un- 
favorable attitude and condition of the human 
mind. Impure thoughts, fear, worry, dread, 
mental depression, over-excitement and nervous 
tension and stress hinder the free action of 
organs and glands of digestion, circulation and 
secretion, and thus the system becomes clogged, 
poisoned and ultimately diseased. 

Some folks treat the violations of the laws 
of life, whether these violations come through 
the appetites and desires of the body or through 
the mind, simply as mistakes and errors. The 
apostle Paul called such violations of the laws 
of life SIN. He declares that "Sin is the viola- 
tion of law." By this statement he does not 
mean the violation of the Mosaic law, or the 
laws of the state or nation, but the violation 
of the law, the law of life. Any violation of 
the law of life under which the body is oper- 
ated is sin. You may call it by whatever name 
you wish but such violation always produces, 
sooner or later, sickness and suffering. 

Accepting the fact that God made the human 



78 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

body to be well, and also realizing that this 
splendid and delicate piece of physical me- 
chanism was created to operate harmoniously 
only in accord with the laws of life which are 
infallible because they are the laws of God, we 
must seek to live in harmony with the will of 
God as expressed in these laws of life if we are 
to have a right to expect, and claim that meas- 
ure of health which God made the human body- 
to enjoy. 

GOD HAS PROVIDED FOR RECOVERY FROM 
SICKNESS 

No one should feel that, when sickness does 
come upon him through some violation of the 
laws of life, through ignorance or otherwise, he 
must remain an invalid in some degree at least 
until the end of his days. God has graciously 
provided for the full and complete recovery 
from sickness. The Old and the New Testa- 
ment abound with examples of healing and re- 
covery on the part of the sick. The experi- 
ences of life are also replete with examples of 
restoration to health. The forces of life are 
always working for the restoration of the sick 



Mental Attitude and Health 79 

or injured body to normal and healthful condi- 
tions. When a cut or wound is made on the 
surface of the body the forces of life instantly 
set to work to stop the flow of blood and heal 
the wound. If internal inflammation is set up, 
the forces of nature act just as promptly trying 
to restore the membrane or tissue to normal 
conditions. 

For generations the people have been led 
to believe that disease always tended to grow 
worse instead of better. The writer well re- 
members reading, in his youthful days, from 
almanacs and circulars containing medical ad- 
vertisements, long lists of symptoms of disease. 
Some of these symptoms every reader was likely 
to have and the advertisement was sure to con- 
tain somewhere a solemn warning that disease 
never gets better of itself but constantly grows 
worse, unless indeed some of the wonderful 
remedies discovered by the advertising doctor 
was taken IN TIME. 

In addition to the influences just referred to, 
when any one was sick the doctor was sent for 
in haste, hence the majority of people were 
brought up with the feeling that when one was 
sick it was absolutely necessary to take some 



80 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

medicine to cure the disease. The success of 
the whole system of drug practice has been 
built upon this false conception that bodily dis- 
ease always tended to grow worse and that 
sickness could not be . cured without putting 
some drug into the body to make it well. The 
truth of the matter is that the vital forces of the 
human system are constantly working to keep 
the body well and restore it to health when 
sick. 

Still, influenced by false traditional medical 
conceptions, handed down from generation to 
generation, the average patient even in this in- 
telligent age seems to expect the doctor in some 
mysterious way to hand him healing in the 
magic form of pills and powders. Drugs never 
added an iota to any one's vitality and never 
will. Dope, in the form of poison, has hin- 
dered far more than helped the sick to recovery. 
The after results of such medicine is often more 
disastrous than the disease. Experience and 
observation has already taught many that the 
vital forces recuperate more rapidly without 
the use of drugs than with. Realization is com- 
ing slowly that drugs do not heal and that 
poison in any form never cures. The only way 



Mental Attitude and Health 81 

that the vital forces of life can be increased is 
from nourishment taken from proper food when 
the digestive organs are in condition to digest 
and assimilate it. 

For years physicians and scientists toiled in 
their laboratories to discover some specific 
which would destroy the tubercular germ. Such 
a discovery would have been an untold blessing 
to humanity. In the meantime tens of thou- 
sands afflicted with tuberculosis died. Within 
recent years, impatient at the delay or despair- 
ing of finding a cure in drugs, physicians have 
turned their attention to the importance of at- 
tending to the conditions which would give the 
vital forces of life the most favorable chances 
of working out a cure. With the necessary 
and important information set before them, 
thousands of patients, infected with the dread 
tubercular germs, have since been restored to 
health by the co-operation of proper rest, fresh 
air, sunlight and plenty of nourishing food, 
with the vital forces of the body. 

The modern physician, whose numbers are 
daily increasing, will use far less poisonous 
drugs. He will teach his patients that God has 
provided for the recovery of the sick through 



82 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

the vital forces of life. He will seek to have 
them clearly understand that these God-given 
forces are always working for their recovery, 
but that they can work effectively only in accord 
with the laws of life and health in respect to 
proper rest, food, air and exercise and the ab- 
sence of excesses of appetite and the indulgence 
of desires. The patient will thus come to have 
intelligent faith in the divine forces of life to 
fight to the "last ditch" for his recovery instead 
of falsely trusting to some traditional drug to 
restore him to health. The modern physician 
should be remunerated in proportion to the in- 
telligent, experienced and trained services he 
can render rather than for the amount fof drugs 
he can sell. 

GOD IS GREATER THAN SICKNESS 

Faith healing, often spoken of as divine heal- 
ing, is in reality but mental healing, the opera- 
tion of the divine forces of life through the 
mind. Nothing so fortifies the human mind 
as an absolute faith in a God who is infinite in 
power and love, and nothing so fortifies a sick 
patient against the ravages of disease as faith 



Mental Attitude and Health 83 

in the fact that God is greater than sickness 
and hence has the power to heal disease. There 
is not the slightest doubt, from scriptural and 
historic record as well as from modern experi- 
ences, that thousands of sick people have re- 
covered through faith healing or divine heal- 
ing as some prefer to call it. 

We heartily indorse the fact of divine heal- 
ing as we have already stated that we believe 
that all healing is divine. It is the point of 
view which creates the wide divergence between 
the usual advocates of divine healing and the 
students of modern psychology. Divine healing 
or faith cure has been presented from the view- 
point of the supernatural and miraculous. Pos- 
sibly the reason why so few people, relatively, 
accept the doctrine of Faith healing is because 
they believe that the days of miracles are 
passed and that God operates through the laws 
of life. 

Many of those who believed in divine healing 
from the old point of view would have the sick 
expect that God, in some mysterious manner, 
was going to hand them health out of Heaven. 
Those who believe in divine healing from the 
new point of view believe that God can mani- 



84 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

fest His infinite power for healing just as won- 
derfully and marvelously through the laws of 
life which he has established as through so- 
called miracles. 

God, the infinite Spirit of life, power, wis- 
dom and love, is imminent in His creation and 
especially in the life of man, manifesting Him- 
self and His power through the laws of man's 
physical and mental life. But, God is also 
greater than His creation, greater than man 
in whom He dwells. Just as man himself may 
build a house and dwell in that house, and yet 
be greater than the house, so God dwells in 
man and yet is above man and greater than 
man. No one would deny that an infinite God 
could control and heal man in a manner usually 
deemed miraculous, but we undertake to say 
that God does not so manifest His power. 

God has not in all recent centuries handed a 
farmer a single ear of corn out of heaven, say 
nothing of a crib full, yet He has given farm- 
ers uncounted millions of ears of corn through 
the natural laws of life and growth. God has 
not seen fit to place in the arms of any mother 
a full-grown son or daughter; and yet, God in 
His goodness has placed in the arms of num- 



Mental Attitude and Health 85 

berless thousands of mothers sons and daugh- 
ters through the laws of life and natural growth. 
So while God has given multitudes of sick peo- 
ple health, He has not seen fit to hand out 
health to them from heaven in done-up pack- 
ages. He has brought health to them through 
the vital forces of the body and the confident co- 
operation of the mind. 

A minister whom we know intimately was 
seriously in need of healing. He had for years 
given much more earnest attention to books 
than to the laws of health. The time came 
when he must have healing or give up his pro- 
fession. He sought divine healing through 
prayer. He read various writers upon the sub- 
ject of divine healing and, in addition, studied 
carefully and prayerfully all the passages in 
the Old and New Testaments upon that sub- 
ject. The more he shut himself in his room 
and prayed the worse he became. God at last 
answered his prayers by bringing into his hands 
a copy of Physical Culture, which sent him out 
into the open air for exercise and an appetite 
for sufficient nourishing food to support his 
body. In six months he was a well man. He 
was divinely healed, but through the divine 



86 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

forces of life operating in accord with the laws 
of physical health. 

Corn grows by rule and so does a healthful 
body. " Whatsoever a man soweth that shall 
he also reap." The laws of life are absolutely 
infallible because they are the laws of God. 
If a man disobeys the laws of health he 
will reap sickness* There is no law or phi- 
losophy whereby a man can sow thistle seeds 
and reap wheat; and neither is there any law 
whereby a man may violate all the laws of 
physical health and then by a few prayers have 
God hand him health as the grocer hands out 
a package of breakfast food. 

In view of the facts stated, it is evident that 
God, who is greater than sickness, does bring 
divine healing but He brings it through the laws 
of life which control both body and mind. But, 
since the mind controls the body, the divine 
forces of life operate more effectively for health 
through the mind than through the physical or- 
ganism. Faith healing is both scriptural and 
psychological, but not necessarily miraculous. 
Faith, in general, is a confident mental attitude 
toward God, man or the certainty of the laws 
of life. Faith in relation to divine healing 



Mental Attitude and Health 87 

is an attitude of mental confidence in a God 
who is greater than sickness and who can and 
will heal sickness. 

It has taken the world a long, long time to 
realize that God actually made the human body 
to be well and that He has provided for recov- 
ery from sickness. The world is slower still to 
recognize that God is not only greater than 
sickness but that He wants people to be well 
and actually heals them. The majority of peo- 
ple do not understand that the human body is 
a self-healing and self-recuperative vital or- 
ganism. They do not know that God has 
placed within the body the vital forces essen- 
tial to growth, development, repair and cure. 

Growing out of the conceptions of the past 
centuries which created a God in harmony with 
human passions and human vengeance, multi- 
tudes of people still seem to have a fixed men- 
tal conception that God is chiefly concerned in 
destroying the human race. We still hear min- 
isters of the gospel referring to God as having, 
in His providence, taken away the child from 
its mother's arms; or to the mother whom God 
has taken away from the new-born babe which 
she was given to love and cherish. Sometimes 



88 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

it is the father, the head and support of the 
family, that God in His wisdom has removed, 
leaving the widow and helpless children desti- 
tute. For the fact that four-fifths of the hu- 
man race do not live out the full span of nat- 
ural life, the blame is laid upon God as though 
He did not desire nor expect the race which He 
has created to live out their three-score years 
and ten. Little wonder so many people expect 
sickness rather than health and death rather 
than life, in view of the traditional concep- 
tions of God which have come down to them. 
God gave human life to be lived out to its 
full span. He desires man to live, expects him 
to live and, humanly speaking, He is sorry 
when any one dies before his time. While it 
is a sad truth that thousands of mothers are 
taken from their infant children at their birth, 
it is not because God wants any mother thus 
to die. God made mothers for children and 
children for mothers, and He wants the mothers 
to live and rear their children for Him. While 
child-birth is a severe physical and nervous or- 
deal, it is not in itself the cause of the death 
of one mother in a thousand. Death on such 
occasions is usually due to the ignorance or in- 



Mental Attitude and Health 89 

attention of the attending physician or nurse, to 
the lack of proper sanitation and antiseptic 
care which results in septic poisoning and 
death. 

People die before their time but not because 
God wants them to die prematurely, but because 
of their ignorance or neglect of the laws of 
health and life. The God of love, revealed to 
us in Jesus Christ, desires that children born 
into this world shall live, expects that they shall 
live out the full years ; and the chances are that 
they will thus live if they conform to the laws 
of life. 

Scores of examples of the healing of sickness 
of the body through confident mental attitude 
might be cited from the personal experiences 
and observations of the writer, but we purpose- 
ly confine ourselves to the discussion of the 
principles involved and the application of the 
same. 

The mental antidote for ill health will be 
found in an abiding, confident attitude of mind 
that God has made the human body to be well, 
in an unshaken faith that God has provided 
for recovery from sickness through the vital, 
reparative and recuperative forces of the body, 



90 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

re-enforced and quickened by a firm will. To 
these must be added the firm belief that God is 
greater than sickness — any sickness, all sick- 
ness, your sickness ; and that all healing is from 
Him through the divine forces of life in what- 
ever way He may be pleased to direct them. 

The one who has placed his life absolutely 
at the disposal of God, to be led and kept by 
His Spirit, has already assumed a mental atti- 
tude that is an antidote for sickness. This 
does not necessarily mean that such a s one will 
never be sick as a result of disobedience to the 
laws of life, but it does mean that when one 
has thus placed his life at God's disposal he is 
in position to expect and to claim the assistance 
of all the divine forces of life for his recov- 
ery. With such a mental attitude one can con- 
fidently hope for all the bodily health that can 
possibly come to him through the medium of 
the mind and will. And, since the limit to which 
an unshaken confidence can go in overcoming 
disease has never yet been determined, let no 
one despair as long as the vital forces of life 
continue to operate. 



X 

MIND AND MASTERY 

We are told in the first chapter of the book 
of Genesis that, when God had created man, He 
gave him to have dominion over every living 
creature. In the Eighth Psalm the writer 
speaks of the wonders and beauties and mar- 
velous greatness of the heavens as the work 
of God, but he refers to these only to empha- 
size the fact that man is still greater, "For 
thou hast made him a little lower than God 
(himself) and crownest him with glory and 
honor. Thou madest him to have dominion" 
As wonderful and marvelous as are the heavens, 
man is still more wonderful for he is made 
in the image of God and but little lower than 
God himself. That is, man has in him the 
Spirit of God, only man is finite and God is 
infinite. 

Thus we see that man was made for 
91 



92 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

DOMINION and not slavery. He was cre- 
ated to rule as a king on the throne of his 
manhood and not to grovel in the dust to his 
desires and appetites. Woman was made to 
rule as queen in the realm of her womanhood 
and not to be slave and paramour to man's de- 
sides. Man has already obtained dominion 
over the earth, sea and air as God intended 
that he should. He is already master of the 
beasts of the field, the fowls of the air and the 
fishes of the sea. But, sad to relate, man has 
not yet reached the higher mastery of self. 
u He that ruleth his spirit is mightier than he 
that taketh a city." With all his mastery, man 
has not yet obtained dominion over himself, 
over his appetites, desires and passions. 

The enormous proportions of our annual to- 
bacco, liquor and social vice bills reveal the 
sad fact that men are still slaves instead of 
rulers, servants instead of masters. As long 
as mankind are willing to pay more for their 
vices than for their virtues they can not justly 
claim the God-given right of having dominion 
over themselves. Every jail and prison house 
in the land is a testimonial to the fact that 
men are not masters of themselves, hence the 



Mind and Mastery 93 

necessity of the restraining hand of the law 
and prison bars. 

On a recent visit to our old home town we 
met on the street a classmate of high school 
days. Cordial greetings were exchanged. 
"How are you, George ?" "Fine!" "How 
are you, Tom?" "All right but for tobacco." 
"What do you mean, Tom?" "Well, I can't 
quit chewing tobacco." "Well, Tom, is a quid 
of tobacco bigger than you are?" "Well, I 
guess it is; I can't quit." Think of it! A big, 
strapping, six-footer humbly confessing that he 
was a slave to his appetite for tobacco ! And 
what shall we say of the tens of thousands of 
men and women who are in bondage to their 
appetites for alcohol, opiates and social vice? 
Man has fought for and obtained religious, 
civil and social liberty and is now no longer 
enslaved to any man or potentate as his mas- 
ter. Man would even now rather give his very 
life's blood than surrender his liberty as a citi- 
zen. Strange indeed, then, that he should tame- 
ly yield and meekly submit to be ruled by his 
appetites, desires and temper. 

The foregoing emphasizes the need of mas- 
tery; and, since God made man to have domin- 



94 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

ion, it is our purpose to emphasize the thought 
of mastery and not slavery. Mastery over 
self is possible since God has declared that 
He made man to have dominion. God has ex- 
horted, ".Let not sin rule in your mortal 
bodies." "Let not sin have dominion over 
you." God has declared that, "He that com- 
mitteth sin is the servant [slave] of sin." 
"His servants [slaves] ye are whom ye yield 
yourselves servants to obey." God has prom- 
ised, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth 
shall make you free." "If, therefore, the Son 
shall make you free ye shall be free indeed." 
The possibility of man's dominion and mas- 
tery of himself is assured so far as God's de- 
sire and purpose for him is concerned. 

HOW SHALL MAN OBTAIN DOMINION? 

By asserting the God-given powers of the 
mind over the body for mastery of appetites 
and desires. Man's thoughts make him to be 
either a master of his appetites and disposi- 
tions or a slave to them. If a man holds that 
his appetites and desires were given him simply 
for the sensual enjoyment he can get out of 



Mind and Mastery 95 

them, he will naturally become enslaved by 
them. If man holds a mental conception and 
attitude that his appetites, desires and disposi- 
tions are but factors in the fulfillment of the 
high purposes and ends for which he was cre- 
ated, the nourishment of his body, the perpetua- 
tion of the human race and the achievement 
of God's plan for his life, he will become a king 
on the throne of his manhood instead of a 
subject of his desires. 

Some time ago a prominent citizen inquired 
of the writer as to whether he had ever smoked 
a cigar or taken a drink of whiskey. On re- 
ceiving a negative reply, the gentleman ex- 
claimed, "Ah, you don't know what real pleas- 
ure is!" The writer had the privilege of tell- 
ing him that he found much higher pleasure 
and much more lasting satisfaction in the con- 
sciousness that he was the master of his ap- 
petites instead of being enslaved to them. 

There is a wide distinction between pleasure 
and satisfaction. Any physical or mental sen- 
sation that is immediately enjoyable may be 
termed pleasure, but the result of such pleas- 
ure may be far from being satisfactory. The 
primary effects of alcohol, when the brain is 



g6 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

in its first stages of nervous jingle, may be 
very pleasant, but the final stages of a drunken 
spree are anything but satisfactory. 

Man can obtain dominion by asserting the 
God-given powers of his mind for the control 
and direction of his appetites and desires to 
the ends and purposes for which they were cre- 
ated. Men do not need to pray to the Devil 
for help to commit sin, to violate the laws of 
life, they simply give free rein to the indul- 
gence of their appetites and soon find them- 
selves in bondage to their desires. Men do 
not need to pray to God for help to do what 
He wants done and has already equipped them 
with all the divine forces of life to accom- 
plish. 

How did Edison, Bell, Wright, Marconi, ob- 
tain dominion over the forces of nature? They 
obtained the mastery by utilizing the forces of 
the mind with which they were endowed. They 
recognized that the power for mastery lay in 
the human mind and will, and they set them- 
selves diligently and resolutely to achieve the 
dominion which God had already given them 
in embryo. The men of history who have ob- 
tained mastery over the soil, seas and sky are 



Mind and Mastery 97 

the men who felt that they were made for 
mastery and hence emphasized those factors 
and forces which made for dominion. 

If man would have mastery over the forces 
of nature he must study the laws of nature; 
and if he would have dominion over his own 
appetites and desires he must also study the 
laws of such dominion. If a man permits his 
mind to dwell upon the pleasures of the grati- 
fication of his appetites and rolls the thought 
of sensual indulgence, as it were, a sweet mor- 
sel under his tongue, he will ultimately become 
enslaved to his appetites, no matter what form 
the indulgence may take. 

Although enslaved to intemperate indulgence 
because of his wrong mental attitude, man may 
obtain freedom and mastery by right mental 
emphasis. He can say to himself, "I am a 
man, made in the image of God for dominion, 
and I refuse to remain a slave to sin." He can 
come to realize that slavery is abnormal and 
that mastery is natural; and that in his higher 
mental and moral nature he does not desire to 
gratify appetite merely for the sake of the 
sensual pleasure. If he is a drunkard he can 
say to himself, "I do not want to drink liquor," 



98 Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

which is true of his higher self. He can re- 
peat the assertion many times a day. He can 
soon go farther and say, "I will not drink 
liquor," and keep asserting that resolve and in 
a short time he will find that he has the mas- 
tery. For, whatever may be said, unworthy 
appetites are not so much the real demands 
of the flesh as they are mental habits. The 
quickest and surest cure for intemperate in- 
dulgence of any sort is that mental attitude 
and mental habit which assures oneself that 
such indulgence is neither necessary nor desired. 
What man indeed is so low that, figuratively 
speaking, he can look up into the face of the 
God who created him in His own image and 
made him to have DOMINION and say to 
God, u Drunkenness and social vice are a neces- 
sity"? 

Men who have dominion are those who eat 
and drink for the nourishment of the body. It 
is the eating and drinking for the pleasures of 
the palate, for the kick and jingle that alcohol 
puts into the brain that makes men gluttons, 
drunkards and slaves to their appetites. Such 
slavery is intensified by a false conception that 
the abnormal gratification of his animal in- 



Mind and Mastery 99 

stincts in some way benefits him. Then, such 
a man always places more emphasis upon the 
temporary pleasures of sense than upon the 
higher and more lasting satisfaction that comes 
from the accomplishments of the high ends 
and purposes of life. 

THE SUPREME INCENTIVE FOR MASTERY 

The realization that "God made man for 
dominion'' is the highest inspiration and great- 
est incentive for man to live in mastery of 
all his appetites, desires and passions. "He 
that ruleth his temper is mightier than he that 
taketh a city." The greatest victory in the 
world is self-mastery. In his book, "The Shep- 
herd of the Hills," the author puts into the 
lips of his hero, Grant Matthews, these words, 
"No man needn't be afraid of nobody but 
himself." When man has mastered himself 
he can master anything that God wants him 
to master. 

While happiness, poise, health and success 
are important, self-mastery, the dominion of 
the mind over one's own appetites, desires and 
disposition is the crowning satisfaction of life. 



ioo Mental Antidotes for Many Ills 

Dominion puts the real man on top and the 
animal in subjection. Instead of being en- 
slaved by his appetites and desires and all the 
time working for them, the man who is king 
on the throne of his manhood holds his appe- 
tites, desires and passions in subjection and 
compels them to serve him. 

In his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 
9 :27, Paul says, "I strive to keep my body 
under." On a certain Sunday a little girl was 
sent to church, unaccompanied by her parents. 
When she returned, she was requested to re- 
peat the minister's text. She was unable to re- 
call the exact language. Her parents insisted 
and she finally reported the minister as saying, 
"I strive to keep my soul on top." While 
these words are not an exact quotation of the 
words of the apostle, they furnish the best 
interpretation and application of this text we 
have ever heard. The man who is seeking the 
mastery is always striving to keep his soul on 
top and his body under. 

The mind can master and control the body. 
God has made this possible by making the 
mind supreme and the body subordinate. 
Man's mind, the expression of the soul, was 



Mind and Mastery 101 

created by his Maker to be kept on top; and 
only when man voluntarily surrenders his will 
to the control of his desires and appetites does 
he lose his mastery and dominion. Bearing in 
mind the scripture, "God made man to have 
dominion," let us accommodate it and appro- 
priate it to ourselves by repeating often, "God 
gave me to have dominion" ; and this truth, 
under such mental emphasis, will go far to- 
ward giving our minds the mastery over our 
problems of life and also over our appetites, 
desires and dispositions. 



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